Railway journal lubricator distributor



July 3, 1956 J. J. HENNESSY 2,753,227

RAILWAY JOURNAL LUBRICATOR DISTRIBUTOR Filed June 13, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet l July 3, 1956 Filed June 13, 1951 J. J. HENNEssY 2,753,227

RAILHAY JOURNAL LUBRICATOR DISTRIBUTOR 2 Sheets-Sheet. 2

ited States RAILWAY JOURNAL LUBRICATOR DISTRIBUTOR Application June 13, 1951, Serial No. 231,295

Claims. (Cl. 308-84) The invention relates to railway axle journal lubricators and consists in a novel distributor to be applied to the face of the journal and adapted to receive lubricant from a pump and deliver lubricant over a large area of the journal.

One object of the invention is to avoid feeding to the journal of fibers, lint, etc. which may accumulate under the bearing forming what is called waste grab which causes undue heating of the journal and bearing.

Another object is to effect screening and filtering of the lubricant in its passage to the journal so that dust, sand, cinders, or other material, will not be forced into contact with the journal.

Another object is to spread the lubricant over a relatively wide area of the distributor before bringing it into contact with the journal.

Another object is to maintain, without awaiting pumping action, a quantity of oil in the distributor which may be readily heated by the friction between the journal and the distributor when the vehicle is started after a stoppage in cold weather and will lubiicate the journal promptly and before the pump lifts oil to the journal.

These and other detailed objects are attained by the structure shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a perspective, partly in section, of a railway axle journal, a box mounted thereon, and a lubricator positioned in the box and including a pump actuated by the reciprocation of the journal in the box and including a distributor forming the subject matter of the present application.

Figure 2 is a top view of the distributor.

Figure 3 is a longitudinal vertical section through the distributor taken on the line 3 3 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 and 5 are transverse vertical sections through the distributor taken on the corresponding section lines of Figure 2.

The journal l mounts a box 2 through a bearing 3 and a wedge 4l, all of these parts being of usual construction.

he lubricant pump includes a support 5 on the bottom of the box, a holding frame 6 engaging the upwardly inclined front wall 7 of the box and yieldingly held in the position shown by the upstanding H-shaped frame 8, the upper end of which bears against the top wall of the box. A pump carrier 9 mounts the collapsible pump body It@ which is collapsed and expanded by the oscillation of carrier 9 by a lever 11. Rods 12 and 13 converge upwardly and towards each other from support 5 and the lower rear corner C of the box and are pivoted to each other and to brackets 14 depending from the distributor D, which is applied to the journal. This general arrangement is disclosed in an application filed by the present inventor lune l0, 1950, Serial No. 167,409, now Patent No. 2,658,806, issued November 10, 1953.

The upper legs of brackets 14 are riveted to a plate 15 forming the frame or base of the distributor and mounting a pad 16 of felt, yarn rope, chenille or similar porous 2,753,227 Patented July 3, 1956 or knit material permeable to oil under pressure, but having a filtering action to trap dirt, lint, etc. in the oil as it is forced through the pad.

A sheet i7 of flexible material impervious to oil, such as a plastic, a closely woven canvas or other fabrics suitably treated, is loosely applied to the bottom of pad 16 and is secured at its edges to the marginal portions of the pad and forms, with the bottom of the pad, a bag-like receptacle or a reservoir R adapted to retain a quantity of lubricant immediately beneath the pad.

The journal opposing surface of the pad extends substantially continously from one end of the distributor to the other and from one side to the other but plate 15 and sheet 1'7 are apertured as best indicated in Figures 3 and 4 to receive oil from a supply conduit 10a which may be the upper end of the pump body or may lead therefrom. A laterally apertured spacer 19 holds sheet 17 from pad 16 adjacent to conduit lila so that lubricant may ow freely to a large area of the lower face of the pad.

A net 18 of small mesh of hard twine is applied to the upper face of pad lr6 and serves as a screen to prevent the rotating journal from dragging particles of the pad from the body of the pad and carrying the same to bearing 3.

When the vehicle is traveling, the pump operates to feed a supply of oil through conduit lila to reservoir R and to the bottom of the pad over substantially the entire lower face of the pad and therefore effects distribution to the journal over its full length.

When the vehicle is idle, a substantial quantity of oil will be trapped in the reservoir, conduit lha and the pump and available for prompt feeding to the journal by capillary attraction when the vehicle starts up again and before the pump is effective to feed oil to the journal. This reservoir will be particularly advantageous in cold weather, when the oil supply will be congealed, because the friction of the journal will promptly Warm the adjacent supply of oil in the reservoir so that it may move promptly to the journal surface.

The details of the structure may be varied substantially without departing from the spirit of the invention and the exclusive use of those modifications coming Within the scope of the claims is contemplated.

What is claimed is:

l. A railway journal lubricant distributor comprising a relatively thick and stiff pad of fibrous material with a substantial arcuate face from side to side and from end to end of the pad to correspond to the adjacent contour of a journal to which the distributor may be applied, a relatively thin and flexible sheet of substantially imperforate material loosely underlying the pad with its edges secured to the edges of the pad, there being a clear unobstructed passage of relatively small area through said sheet for delivery of -lubricant to the underside of the pad, and means associated with said pad and sheet and forming therewith a trap for lubricant delivered to the pad.

2. A railway journal lubricant distributor comprising a pad of fibrous material with an arcuate upper face form-sustaining means associated with the pad substantially throughout its length and width for holding it to the arcuate face of a journal to which the lubricator is applied, and a sheet of flexible material underlying the pad with its marginal portions attached to the pad, said sheet material being resistent to the ready passage of lubricant therethrough, and said sheet being provided with a clear unobstructed passageway for lubricant from below the sheet to the lower face of the pad, and a pump with a conduit leading to said passageway and having a restricted cross sectional area relative to the area of said pad, said sheet material and pad and conduit forming a trap for lubricant delivered to the pad.

3. A railway journal lubricant distributor comprising a pad of felt-.like material for application to the surface of a journal to be lubricated, a metallic plate-like support for the pad, a sheet of flexible canvas-.like material impervious to oil underlying said pad and secured to the marginal portions of the pad, and a lubricant conduit leading through said sheet to the lower face of the pad.

4, In combination, a lubricator pump, arranged for mounting upon the bottom of a railway axle journal box, and a lubricant distributor carried and supplied by the pump and having an arcuate upper face for application to a journal, said distributor comprising a fibrous upper portion and a substantially impervious bottom sheet spaced from said upper portion, to form a reservoir, there being a passageway from the pump through said bottom sheet, there being a small mesh net of relatively hard material overlying said brous upper portion to resist separation of its fibers.

5. A railway journal lubricant distributor comprising a relatively thick and stiff pad of fibrous material with a substantial arcuate face extending from side to side and from end to end of the pad to correspond to the adjacent contour of a journal to which the distributor may be applied, a relatively thin and flexible sheet of substantially imperforate material loosely underlying the pad with its edges secured to the edges of the pad, there being a clear, unobstructed passage of relatively small area through said sheet for delivery of lubricant to the under side of the pad, there being a spacer between the pad and the flexible sheet and adjacent to the passage through the sheet, said spacer being apertured laterally to lead lubricant from said passage to portions of the pad and sheets spaced from said passage.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 107,631 Sayles Sept. 20, 1870 573,417 Petithomme Dec. 15, 1896 1,265,199 Hennessy May 7, 1918 1,404,651 Robertson lan. 24, 1922 1,683,616 Hennessy 2.., Sept. 1l, 1928 FOREIGN PATENTS 290,130 Great Britain May 10,V 1928 698,970 France Feb. 9, 1931 740,392 France Nov. 14, 1932 151,847 Switzerland Mar. 16, 1932 

